This science belongs to the sciences of the religious
law. It originated in Islam when the sciences became crafts 553and scholars wrote books on them. Dream visions and dream
interpretation existed among the ancients, as among later generations.
It existed among former (pre-Islamic) religious groups and nations.
However, their dream interpretation did not reach us,554
because we have been satisfied with the discussions of Muslim dream
interpreters. In any case, all human beings can have dream visions, and
these visions must be interpreted.

Truthful Joseph already interpreted visions, as is mentioned
in the Qur'an.555
(Sound tradition in) the Sahih, on the authority of the Prophet and on the authority of
Abu Bakr, likewise establishes (the existence of dream visions). Dream
vision is a kind of supernatural perception. Muhammad said: "A good
dream vision is the forty-sixth part of prophecy." 556He also said: "The only remaining bearer of glad tidings
is a good dream vision, beheld by - or shown to - a good man." 557The revelation given to the Prophet began with a dream
vision. Every dream vision he saw appeared to him like the break of
dawn. When Muhammad went away from the morning prayer, he used to ask
the men around him, "Did any one of you see a dream vision during the
night?" He asked this question in order to derive good news from dream
visions, which might refer to the victory of Islam and the growth of its
power.558

The reason for perception of the supernatural in dream
visions is as follows:
559The spirit of the
heart, which is the fine vapor coming from the cavity in the flesh of
the heart, spreads into the veins and, through the blood, to all the
rest of the body. It serves to perfect the actions and sensations of the
animal powers. The (spirit) may be affected by lassi­tude, because it is
very busy with the sensual perception of the five senses and with the
employment of the external powers. When the surface of the body, then,
is covered by the chill of night, the spirit withdraws from all the
other regions of the body to its center, the heart. It rests, in order
to be able to resume its activity, and all the external senses are (for
the time being) unemployed. This is the meaning of sleep, as was
mentioned before at the beginning of the book. Now, the spirit of the
heart is the vehicle of man's rational spirit. Through its essence, the
rational spirit perceives everything that is in the divine world, since
its reality and its essence are identical with perception. It is
prevented from assimilating any supernatural
perception by the veil of its preoccupation with the body and the
corporeal powers and senses. If it were without that veil or stripped of
it, it would return to its reality, which is identical with perception.
It would thus be able to assimilate any object of perception. If it were
stripped of part of it, its preoccupation would be less. It is thus able
to catch a glimpse of its own world, since external sense perception,
its greatest preoccupation, now occupies it less. Its (supernatural
perception) corresponds (in intensity) to the degree to which the veil
is withdrawn from it. Thus it becomes prepared to receive the available
perceptions from its own world that are appropriate for it. When it has
perceived these perceptions from its own worlds, it returns with them to
its body, since, as long as it remains in its corporeal body, it cannot
be active except through corporeal means of perception.

The faculties through which the body perceives knowledge
are all connected with the brain. The active part among them is the
imagination. It derives imaginary pictures from the pictures perceived
by the senses and turns them over to the power of memory, which retains
them until they are needed in connection with speculation and deduction.
From the (imaginary pictures), the soul also abstracts other
spiritual-intellectual pictures. In this way, abstraction ascends from
the sensibilia to the
intelligibilia. The
imagination is the intermediary between them. Also, when the soul has
received a certain number of perceptions from its own world, it passes
them on to the imagination, which forms them into appropriate pictures
and turns those perceptions over to the common sense. As a result, the
sleeper sees them as if they were perceived by the senses. Thus, the
perceptions come down from the rational spirit to the level of sensual
perception, with the imagination again being the intermediary. This is
what dream visions actually are.

The (preceding) exposition shows the difference between
true dream visions and false, "confused dreams." All of them are
pictures in the imagination while an individual is asleep. However, if
these pictures come down from the rational spirit that perceives (them),
they are dream visions. But if they are derived from the pictures
preserved in the power of memory, where the imagination deposits them
when the individual is awake, they are "confused dreams." 560

It 561should be known
that true dream visions have signs indicating their truthfulness and
attesting their soundness, so that the person who has the dream vision
becomes conscious of the glad tidings from God given him in his sleep.

The first of these signs is that the person who has the
dream vision wakes up quickly, as soon as he has perceived it. It seems
as if he is in a hurry to get back to being awake and having sensual
perception. Were he (to continue) to sleep soundly, the perception given
him would weigh heavily on him. Therefore, he tries to escape from the
state (in which he has supernatural perception) to the state of sensual
perception in which the soul is always fully immersed in the body and
the corporeal accidents.

Another sign is that the dream vision stays and remains
impressed with all its details in the memory of (the person who
perceived it). Neither neglect nor forgetfulness affects it. No thinking
or remembering is required, in order to have it present (to one's mind).
The (dream vision) remains pictured in the mind of (the dreamer) when he
awakes. Nothing of it is lost to him. This is because perception by the
soul does not take place in time and requires no consecutive order, but
takes place all at once and within a single time element.
562 "Confused dreams," on the other hand, take place in
time, because they rest in the powers of the brain and are brought from
the power of memory to the common sense by the imagination, as we have
stated. (The process is an action of the body,) and all actions of the
body take place in time. Thus, they (require) a consecutive order, in
order to perceive anything, with something coming first and something
else com­ing later. Forgetfulness, which always affects the powers of
the brain, affects (them). That is not the case with the percep­tions of
the rational soul. They do not take place in time and have no
consecutive order. Perceptions that are impressed in (the rational soul)
are impressed all at once in the briefest moment. Thus, after (the
sleeper) is awake, (his) dream vision remains present in his memory for
quite some time. In no way does it slip his mind as the result of
neglect, if it originally made a strong impression. However, if it
requires thinking and application to remember a dream vision after a
sleeper is awake, and if he has forgotten many of its details before he
can remember them again, the dream vision is not a true one but a
"confused dream."

These signs belong in particular to (prophetic)
revelation. God said to His Prophet: "Do not set your tongue in motion
to make haste with (the revelation of the Qur'an). It is up to us to put
it together and to recite it. And when we recite it, follow its
recitation. Then, it is up to us to explain it."
563Dream visions are related to prophecy and
revelation, as is stated in (the sound tradition of) the Sahih.
Thus, Muhammad said: "A dream vision is the forty-sixth part of
prophecy." 564In the same
way, the characteristics of dream visions are related to the
characteristics of prophecy. One should not consider that as unlikely.
It appears to be this way.

God creates whatever He wishes to create.

As to the idea of dream interpretation, the following
should be known. The rational spirit has its perceptions and passes them
on to the imagination. (The imagination) then forms them into pictures
but it forms them only into such pictures as are somehow related to the
(perceived) idea. For instance, if the idea of a mighty ruler is
perceived, the imagination depicts it in the form of an ocean. Or, the
idea of hostility is depicted by the imagination in the form of a
serpent. A person wakes up and knows only that he saw an ocean or a
serpent. Then, the dream interpreter, who is certain that the ocean is
the picture conveyed by the senses and that the perceived idea is
something beyond that picture, puts the power of comparison to work. He
is guided by further data that establish the character of the perceived
idea for him. Thus, he will say, for instance, that the ocean means a
ruler, because an ocean is something big with which a ruler can
appropriately be compared. Likewise, a serpent can appropriately be
compared with an enemy, because it does great harm. Also, vessels can be
compared with women, because they are receptacles, and so on.565

Dream visions may be evident and require no
interpreta­tion, because they are clear and distinct, or because (the
ideas) perceived in them may be very similar to (the pictures) by which
they are represented. Therefore, it has been said in (the sound
tradition of) the Sahih, "There are three kinds of dream visions.
There are dream visions from God, dream visions from the angels, and
dream visions from Satan." 566 Dream visions
from God are those that are evident and need no explanation. Dream
visions from an angel are true dreams that require interpretation. And
dream visions from Satan are "confused dreams."

It should be known that when the spirit passes its
perceptions on to the imagination, (the latter) depicts them in the
customary molds of sensual perception. Where such molds never existed in
sensual perception, (the imagination)
567 cannot form any pictures. A (person who was) born
blind could not depict a ruler by an ocean, an enemy by a serpent, or
women by vessels, because he had never perceived any such things. For
him, the imagination would depict those things through similarly
appropriate (pictures) derived from the type of perceptions with which
he is familiar - that is, things which can be heard or smelled. The
dream interpreter must be on guard against such things. They often cause
confusion in dream interpretation and spoil its rules.

The science of dream interpretation implies a knowledge
of general norms upon which the dream interpreter bases the
interpretation and explanation of what he is told. For instance, they
say that an ocean represents a ruler. Elsewhere, they say that an ocean
represents wrath. Again, elsewhere, they say that it represents worry
and calamity. Or, they say that a serpent represents an enemy, but
elsewhere they say that it represents one who conceals a secret.
Elsewhere again, they say that it represents life, and so on.568

The dream interpreter knows these general norms by heart
and interprets the dreams in each case as required by the data
establishing which of these norms fits a particular dream vision best.
The data may originate in the waking state. They may originate in the
sleeping state. Or, they may be created in the soul of the dream
interpreter himself by the special quality with which he is endowed.

This science never ceased being transmitted in the
circles of the early Muslims. Muhammad b. Sirin
570was one of the most famous experts in (dream
interpretation) among them. Certain norms of dream interpretation were
written down on his authority. People have transmitted them down to this
time.

Al-Kirmani 571wrote on the
subject after Ibn Sirin. Recent scholars have written many works on it.
The books in use among contemporary Maghribis are the Mumti' and other works by Ibn
Abi Talib al-Qayrawini,572
a scholar from al­Qayrawan, and the Kitab al-Isharah
by as-Salimi
573which is one of the most useful and briefest
574books on the subject. There also is the Kitab al-Marqabah al-'ulya by
Ibn Rashid,575
who belonged to (the circle of) our shaykhs
in Tunis.

Dream interpretation is a science resplendent with the
light of prophecy, because prophecy and dreams are related to each
other, and (dreams) played a part in the (prophetic) revelation, as has
been established in sound tradition.